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MyVisionTest News Archive

May 12, 2008

Visually-impaired students pledge to vote
VISUALLY-challenged students have pledged to exercise their constitutional rights in the elections to be held on May 10, at a time when more than 35 per cent of the electorate will refrain from casting their votes and many others have threatened to boycott polls as their demands were not met.

More than 200 blind students, including boarders at the blind students hostel on New Sayyaji Rao Road, are moving out in batches to go to their native places. The students feel that it is their constitutional right to elect better candidates to serve the public.

K Puttmadaswamy, a student of Maharaja’s College, is looking forward to vote on Saturday. He has been asking seniors how to operate the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), the names, serial number and symbols of the candidates in the fray.

"I am excited to vote for the first time. It is a golden opportunity to strengthen democracy and put it on the right track," he says.

The use of EVMs will enable blind students to vote on their own by touching the serial numbers on the electronic machines, whereas the ballot paper would have given room for the attendant to vote for the candidate of his choice rather than that of the blind voter.